Yesterday I shared with you my trip report for our trip to Disneyland at the start of this month (April). I also now want to share with you a very special day we had while we were in California. We were very fortunate to be invited to visit the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

The Walt Disney Studios opened in stages between late 1939 and mid-1940, following on the from the success and profits of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Over the years, like anything - like the parks - the studio has grown and developed, adding to its rich history and success.

It was an amazing opportunity to walk around the studio lot and through some of the buildings that Walt Disney himself worked in during the early days of the company.

I won't say too much more about the studios, but will just share my photos from the day. I didn't have my DSLR with me as it's a working studio and corporate HQ, and I felt it a little inappropriate, so image resolution may not be at our usual standard. DSLR aside, I took a lot of photos though, so I am going to share as many as I feel reasonable, but just note that we saw much more - there is so much history there.

After you've scrolled through the studios photos, I shall share with you something special in Disney history in Griffith Park, and finally some photos of some Disney connections in Hollywood - both of which we also visited this trip.

Welcome to part four of my grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdoms of the world. In this part we will take an in-depth look at Fantasyland. In case you missed the previous three parts of this tour, you can find them here:

This article features many
photos, so be prepared if you are on a slower internet connection. This is going to be the longest of any of the parts in this tour, since Fantasyland at all the parks contains the highest number of attractions and other experiences, compared to any other land.
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Fourteen years ago today, the then-named Disney's California Adventure Park opened its doors for the first time. Since then, the park has undergone huge changes, eliminating entire lands and building new ones from scratch. It has probably undergone the largest transformation in the past 5 years alone than most parks have in their entire lifespans. Disney California Adventure, as it is today, is a tribute to the unending dream of Walt Disney, to keep moving forward and to continue to bring joy to people all around the world.

Let's take a look back at some of our favourite moments from the park over the years.

First of all I must apologise for the large gap between this post and the previous one in this series. We have had a huge amount of things happen in real life, and writing a large post like this unfortunately had to go on the back burner for a while. However, we are here now, and I am excited to finally present to you the third installment of our “Grand Circle Tour”, this time for Frontierland (and all its equivalents). In case you missed the previous parts, here they are again:

In this edition I will be including Critter Country, Grizzly Gulch and Liberty Square at the various parks around the world. The reason for this is that they all share a common theme of the frontier and wilderness, and also because otherwise there would be nothing else to compare them to (for example, since there is only one Grizzly Gulch, that wouldn’t make for a very interesting article!).

Today, 5th September, is the 87th anniversary of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's debut in the United States.

As we all know, sadly, Oswald was lost by Disney for many years due to an unfortunate set of circumstances. However, he was returned to the Walt Disney Company in 2006 thanks to Bob Iger, and has since found his permanent home at Tokyo DisneySea's American Waterfront. In nine days time Oswald will finally come home to the US when he makes his first ever greeting debut at Walt Disney's original Disneyland Resort, on Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure. Buena Vista Street is the perfect place for Oswald, as it is a monumental tribute to the early days of Walt Disney's career and his arrival in Hollywood.

Before we begin, I just want to clarify the usage of certain names in this article. Some of you may dislike the fact I refer to each park by its location, but please bear in mind that when referring to “Disneyland”, there are actually four parks that carry that name in one way or another, and while I could type “Tokyo Disneyland”, for example, each time, it would be very time consuming. So, to avoid confusion, for the most part I will simply refer to each park by their physical location, to avoid any confusion (for example, Paris, for Disneyland Paris).

Throughout this tour you will also discover that not everywhere has a comparable experience in the other Magic Kingdom style parks, but in fact sometimes lie in other parks. Although we are comparing Adventureland overall, you will find that I throw in other parks too, where necessary, in order to show the comparable experiences.

There are many, many photos in this article, so be warned, it might take a few minutes to fully load! &nbsp [ Read More... ]

I'm starting a new series here on the blog in which I aim to share my thoughts and experiences of the different lands of the Magic Kingdom style parks around the world. Think of it as the ultimate "grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdom", to coin a classic phrase!
Of course, there will be many, many photos, so be warned, this post might take a while to load!